#teamboatylicious

[boatylicious]

The Diet of an Ocean Rower

Getting into a routine food wise on board, eating constantly because by the end of another two hours you're starving again. Some of the freeze dried meals (in a bag, add water) so far include hot cereal with mango, chicken korma and beef chilli. Day 12 was an exciting food day on board Black Oyster, as stocks of Expedition Food were running low, we've decided to start on our Mountain House food packs, bringing a new and more diverse selection to the Boatylicious menu. We're now enjoying lasagne, macaroni cheese, chicken noodles, and have yet to sample our many packs of granola in a bag. Snack packs are also an exciting addition to our daily food, and so far, we're appreciating having a bit of variety, although we're expecting nuts, seeds and trek bars to get a bit monotonous by the time we reach Hawaii.... both rowing pairs (Emily and Amanda, and Aoife and Ingrid) are already spending rowing shifts dreaming of the fresh food and cocktails in Hawaii.  One secret ingredient to our snack packs and slight concern amongst the group is our highest calorie to space ratio product, dymatyze, aka super mass gainer protein shake - 650 calories for half a portion - there's still plenty of daily debate on whether we'll be tanked up and super buff by the time we get to Hawaii, or whether we'll arrive with the more traditional skinny lost at sea look.

[boatylicious]

A Very Music-Less Boat: Song Lyrics Wanted!

Our speaker is still broken, I say 'still' but we haven't done anything to try and fix it other than turn it off and on again, a classic remedy that usually works well for us on land, but no luck here.. Instead we have to sing to keep ourselves entertained and awake but between 4 of us, we know all the words to exactly 3 songs, 2 national anthems and the song from the cartoon postman pat... So instead we get half remembered lyrics and repetitive choruses over and over again... It's also meant no Spanish lessons going on but it's all planned for week 3, we'll be hablo-ing espanol to beat the band by the halfway point! If anyone wants to send us on lyrics, some of our favourite tunes to mangle include Somewhere over the Rainbow and the heart will go on song from Titanic. But now we've got the hang of rationing our solar power, we'll hopefully be able to listen to music more regularly on iPods from now on, it's been a very music less boat recently so conversation has been very varied, mostly silly like the jobs preparing for an ocean rower trains you to be (includes shipping agent, firefighter, and window cleaner) but we'll get onto solving all the worlds problems ASAP

If anyone wants to send the Boatylicious girls some song lyrics to keep them entertained, please email them to [email protected]

[boatylicious]

The Battle for Boatylicious Booties

Hygiene on board is fair to middling, we've all washed our hair but relying on baby wipes for everything else, considering keeping this up when we get back to land, so convenient, but somehow I doubt it. Ingrid’s hair looks like a birds nest having not been brushed for 13 days now, actively considering the possibility of having to shave/chop it all off and start fresh, that honour could go the highest donor/ bidder!

Our other big hygiene issue are looking after our poor bottoms, with a wide range of techniques and skills incorporated. We've been wearing the full spectrum of options on deck from sheepskin and a smile, through silk sarongs, to knickers, to Lycra, up to full on foul weather gear in the battle for the boatylicious booties... Then once our shift is over, there's a lot of air drying, tingly talcum powdering, sudacreming, compeeding, and comparing! All of the gentlemen who ever offered to 'cox' for us on this trip would be horrified at this stage, the modern sophisticated ladies you all know and love on land are rapidly disappearing into four grungy, stinky, knotted authentic ocean rowers. Who knows whether these changes are reversible..... You can take the girl out of the ocean, but can you take the ocean out of the girl?

[boatylicious]

Day 17: A New PB and a Volatile Sea

Spending 24 hours a day out on the ocean we are getting to experience its changeable nature. Some days the Pacific can feel quite benign with gentle waves. The sunrises kiss our faces in the morning and warm our backs in the evenings as we row west.  But more than once, we've been lulled into a false sense of security by a calm-ish looking sea at the start of our two hour shift, only to come face to face with heavy pounders minutes later. These were the 40-60 ft swells we were warned about by previous rowers and they give the impression of a two storey house coming at you at 15 miles an hour! But we've also learnt that it’s the tiny hurlers from unexpected directions (and not the 2-storey high rollers) that end up swamping the deck and result in us spending hours bailing buckets overboard. We have begun to dread night shifts. Not only because it means we each have to get into our wet foul weather gear three times throughout the night but because we cannot see where the waves are until they have deposited themselves right on top of our heads. Most of the trip so far has been spent battling cross winds and taking waves on our beam so over the past two days as we've been coming into slightly more following seas, time spent surfing and the free metres and miles that come with it have been a happy change, leading to a PB over the past 24 hours of 46.9NM! Even just after a couple of weeks we've had a steep learning curve and are becoming much more skilled at reading and negotiating our way across this volatile sea. Over the next few weeks our ocean crossing will be fun and exhilarating. The Pacific already has our greatest respect!

[boatylicious]

Highs and Lows at the End of Week Two

We can't believe we've already been rowing for 2 weeks on our good ship Black Oyster.  After 14 days we've rowed hundreds of miles, with a sobering 1773 to go!  Our strategy is West is Best so we are gradually inching our way to Hawaii.  At the end of each week we've started reviewing the highs and lows as we chat on the oars. Highs Every time we cross a line of longitude we cheer, passed into 127 degrees today, only 30 to go! We are encouraged that we're making good progress and will be closing the gap on some the boats from the first wave soon, eyes fixed on the Green Giants of Pacific Warriors! The famous trade winds are just around the corner. We're hoping they'll help to speed up our journey, maybe not to the point where we can sit drinking rum and vitamin powder cocktails but girls can dream... Every day, we enjoy reading the race report and blogs from other boats, a chance to feel linked to the world beyond our grab rails - thanks to Penny in our race support team for forwarding them. Thanks to satcom Direct we are treating ourselves to a phone call home every 7 days., to celebrate another weeks end. We've been getting some misinformation though on Wimbledon results.... But hearing those voices is worth it no matter the topics! Lows After 2 weeks we are still dressed head to toe in our Musto and Sealskinz wet weather gear.  We underestimated just how cold and wet the jourmey would be, I mean, who would have thought the ocean would be cold or wet, right?? But our bikinis are at the ready for when we hit the warm Trade wind weather. We have all been struck with 'ocean rowers bum.' to varying degrees!! Regular TLC is the order of the day now. We are now fully into our 2 hour on / hour off routine round the clock. The nights can be gruelling but we are beginning to get into a routine, going from fast asleep to fully kitted in 4 minutes is my record, and even faster in reverse! Another huge high this week was hearing the rising totals on our charity fundraising targets, that this effort will achieve more than just personal satisfaction for ourselves is a massive motivator and your generosity in donating cannot be overstated so thank you for your ongoing support there. Donations can be made at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-web/fundraiser/showFundraiserProfilePage.action?userUrl=boatylicious&isTeam=true

[boatylicious]

The Journey Begins!

Day 1 Gave us a deceptively calm start, with beautiful weather and rolling swell. We had an early start, arriving in Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club for the last time at 4:30am. Our host families came to see us off and we were sorry to leave them after nearly 4 weeks of fine food, comfortable homes, and levels of support above and beyond the call of duty. We are indebted to them for everything over the past month, having met them was a real lucky break! It didn't take long before half the crew were struck down with mal de la mer, turning them into right chunder monkeys, answers on a postcard as to which half... Of the team, not the body! So after months of thinking we had a sensible plan for shifts, it was all make-it-up-as-we-go style, where we just tried to keep the boat moving, though this meant falling asleep at the oars   Day 3 (because day 2 was pretty quiet) We've already broken 3 oars and lost one overboard, I definitely thought having to bring 8 was excessive, eating my words now. Appetites weren't great to start off with, having to cook (i.e. add boiled water to a bag) seems like faff when you have to be back rowing in 110 minutes, picking up now though, plus the more we eat, the sooner we can stretch out! The evening of day 3 saw us deploy the para-anchor for the first time because of rough, unpredictable waves. This is a 14 foot parachute that is deployed underwater to 'anchor' the boat to the sea, and hold us in place. It means the four of us have to fit into our cabin, where floor space is about the size of a one man tent with 20 days of food, all our personal kit and our electronics panel. It's also designed to be watertight so has all the ventilation of a plastic bag... We also heard the coastguard notifying ships of an ocean rowing boat in distress and taking on water, this was our fellow late starting four, Team Pacific Rowers. We've since heard that they had to be airlifted from their boat but are safe and sound now, we're relieved they're well but very disappointed after all the prep and effort they've put in, it also feels more lonely out here without them even though we haven't seen them since Wednesday morning!   Day 4 Writing this again while we're on para-anchor, listening to '7 years in Tibet' audiobook and eating chocolate. Adding to the list of boat casualties, we spent two hours today trying to fix the bilge pump to no avail. Not much rowing done today because of this and trying to fix the oars, very frustrating after such good progress up to now. But the smart decision is not always the easiest one here and the waves are big enough to wash over the boat now and being on deck isn't an option so we're they're back wedged in the steam room watching the sun go down through the walls of water. Also reading all your lovely emails and texts, sorry we can't respond to them individually but it takes nearly an hour to get them downloaded, but an hour well spent!

The Boatylicious girls would love to hear from you! Email them at [email protected] or go to http://messaging.iridium.com/ and text number 881623480283.